Seychelles looks ahead to Kreol Festival in October

Alain St.Ange, minister for tourism and culture in the Seychelles, hosts planning sessions for the upcoming event

In October 2015, Seychelles Festival Kreol will blow its 30th birthday candle.

Seychelles has rallied all its resources to make this year’s edition of Festival Kreol one of a kind.

Alain St.Ange, minister for tourism and culture, and Benjamine Rose, chairperson of the Festival Kreol committee, brought together members of the committee staging the event to get their feedback on the 2014 edition and see how the committee can bring a fresh touch to the 2015 edition.

St.Ange said the ministry of tourism and culture has set of deadline of March 2015 to come out with a comprehensive program of the festival and start a real marketing campaign of the festival on the international arena.

He further added that Festival Kreol should be marketed overseas at Seychelles tourism trade fairs to give a chance to travellers to book their holidays in the month of October when the event is staged.

The committee has set itself a very ambitious target, with the month of October being dedicated towards promoting the spirit of Festival Kreol.

“We will launch the Creole month during the first weekend of October, and this will build up towards Festival Kreol,” minister St.Ange said.

Compared to previous editions, this event will shift from its original setting of Au Cap to a new setting at Val d’en Dor.

The committee agreed over the new setting since it will solve the issue of persisting traffic congestion at Au Cap.

Minister St.Ange explained it is important for the committee to revisit the concept of “Dimans Kreol borlanmer” and “go back to basics”.

“We will use this new concept of ‘Dimans dan leo’ to bring out our locally-made products and what we claim to be to our traditional-made products.”

The official opening of Festival Kreol will move from Stad Popiler to the soon-to-be-built musical stadium in Victoria.

“We will have our own musical stadium that we can use to stage Festival Kreol’s official opening.

“The committee will work and make adjustments to the official opening program to make the ceremony more spectacular,” St.Ange added.

The Minister also spoke of a national and international lottery for Festival Kreol.

“We will mark the 30th anniversary of Festival Kreol with a national lottery, which we will issue during the course of the upcoming months to market Festival Kreol.

“We will also issue an international lottery, and the grand winner will get a chance to travel to Seychelles and attend Festival Kreol,” he said.

This year will be a test for Seychelles to prove that Victoria deserves the “Creole Capital of the World” title.